The work of a master reeks not of the sweat of the brow - suggests no effort - and is finished from its beginning.

The world is divided into two classes - invalids and nurses.

An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.

We look at a painting to know the painter; it's his company we are after, not his skill.

If other people are going to talk, conversation becomes impossible.

As music is the poetry of sound, so is painting the poetry of sight and the subject-matter has nothing to do with harmony of sound or of color.

To say to the painter that Nature is to be taken as she is, is to say to the player that he may sit on the piano.

I always ask at once, 'Do you drink?' and if she says 'No,' I bow politely and say I am sorry but I fear she will not suit. All good cooks drink.

I can't tell you if genius is hereditary, because heaven has granted me no offspring.

For art and joy go together, with bold openness, and high head, and ready hand - fearing naught and dreading no exposure.

Mauve is just pink trying to be purple.

I won't be sad too often, If they bury me in the libraryWith bookworms in my coffin.

I've really learned to appreciate the magic of challenging yourself. Seeing yourself somewhere new. There's a whole world out there.

I started to write book reviews as a means of recording my thoughts about what I'd read before all memory of them vanished.

There is a set of balances and rhythms to a novel that we can't experience in real life. So I think there is a sense in which fiction can rescue history from confusion.

I'm pretty aware that the pursuit of perfection is, inherently, a flawed concept.

There is no end to what can be said about the world

I Tweeted Keri Hilson the other day and she actually wrote back! I was so excited.

I maintain, in truth, That with a smile we should instruct our youth, Be very gentle when we have to blame, And not put them in fear of virtue's name.

Science fiction is always a vehicle for ideas. It's the form which allows either movies or books to be an exploration of how we should live.